Title: The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer
Author: S.E. Harmon
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 326 Pages
Category: Fantasy Adventure, Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer is equal parts playful and dramatic, cute and cutthroat. It’s meant to entertain, and that it does, without taking itself entirely too seriously.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: In the archaeology community, Christopher “Kit” Sawyer’s family is a legacy. And while he may be a historian, not a treasure hunter, he thinks he does a pretty good job of living up to the Sawyer name. He’s a book-smart research fanatic and does his best work at his tidy desk. No fedora and whip for him, if you please—a nice cup of coffee and a comfy chair will do. But decoding an ancient relic soon gives him more adventure than he bargained for.
Unwittingly, he unleashes a force he doesn’t know how to control. And now he has to reunite the relic with a powerful Aztec God. The trouble with that? Kit doesn’t where to find the Tlaloc’s temple. No one does, in fact. Finding it could be a discovery for the ages. It could also lead to his untimely death. So…yay? But it’s not like he has a choice. So off to the Mexican jungle he goes.
At least he isn’t going alone.
Ethan Stone, former stepbrother and overall pain in the rump, horns in on the expedition. An experienced archaeologist, he’s only coming along at their grandfather’s request—which annoys Kit to no end. But he knows Ethan is just the right person to get them through the jungle safely. It’s just too bad someone is trying to beat them to the temple. And he’s willing to do anything to get there first.
Ethan thinks Kit is in over his head. Kit is secretly afraid he just may be right. In manners of archaeology…and manners of the heart….
Review: Fans of Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, or any of the many other fictional adventurers who seek ancient artifacts at risk to life and limb, and despite disturbing the ancient gods in order to succeed, will find some things to like in The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer. This novel borrows many of the familiar tropes and perils and pitfalls from the movie genre, so all readers have to do is suspend heaping helpings of belief and get on board for the journey.
Kit and his ex-stepbrother, Ethan Stone, have been at odds since the moment Kit’s dad brought Ethan’s mom home to stay. There was plenty of jealousy flowing both ways between Kit and Ethan to keep them sniping and snarking at each other, something that evolves, eventually, into playful banter rather than pointed hostility as they begin to let their true feelings show. Kit’s family legacy is at the root of the jealousy: Kit is jealous of Ethan for being the adventurer Kit himself would, or could, never be. Ethan is jealous of Kit simply for being a Sawyer. While the circumstances of their mutual jealousy don’t change, their perceptions do, primarily on Kit’s part. Kit finally realizes what Ethan has always known—that somewhere amongst all that envy, they’d managed to fall in love.
Trekking through the jungles of Mexico offers up plenty of misery as well as clues to an ancient Aztec god. Kit becomes the vessel through which Tlaloc communicates his demands to locate his temple (it may or may not exist) and return his crown and spear, which Kit has recently, and mysteriously, come in possession of. Easier said than done, of course, as the team Kit and Ethan set out with on their journey face nature’s menace and an unknown foe who appears to be trying to beat them at their own game, all culminating in a wrath-of-god showdown the likes of which this genre not only demands but thrives upon.
S.E. Harmon dug into some of the ancient mysticism and mystery surrounding the Aztecs, their customs, and their mythology, which is Kit’s forte. He’s the scholar, his adventures are of the cerebral rather than the physical sort, which becomes obvious as he prepares to set out for Mexico. Kit is the type of person who has plenty of book smarts but not much in the way of common sense, though Ethan complements him in that area by being protective and anticipating what dangers await. Kit’s lack of sound judgement is never more evident than in his health issues and the decisions he makes despite those choices not always being in his best interests. Being extremely close to someone who shares Kit’s impairment admittedly made me more sensitive to and aware of one restriction in particular that he ignored, though it might not be so obvious to others.
Overall, The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer is equal parts playful and dramatic, cute and cutthroat. It’s meant to entertain, and that it does, without taking itself entirely too seriously.
You can buy The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer here: